A Latta Relieved GOPers, Robin Weirauch lost

[Omaha Steve]

http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2007/12/a_latta_relieve.html

December 11, 2007

The AP called OH-05 for state Rep. Bob Latta (R) just before 9 p.m. Results have been slow to trickle in, but it appears that Latta will win a comfortable victory over ‘04/’06 nominee Robin Weirauch (D).

Results with 79% of the precincts reporting:
Latta 45,444 56%
Weirauch 35,490 44

The results nearly mirror late-Rep. Paul Gillmor’s (R) ’06 victory over Weirauch. In one of Latta’s biggest triumphs, he carried his home county, Wood Co., 55%-45%. That was the one county in the CD that Weirauch came close to winning in ‘06, holding Gillmor to just 50%.

The first sign that this could be a competitive race occurred on 12/2, when the DCCC poured $157K into a TV ad attacking Latta for his ties to ex-Gov. Bob Taft (R) and jailed GOP fundraiser Tom Noe. The NRCC answered with an ad of its own, and in the end put in about $443K into the race. That’s a large sum for a cmte that had only $2.5M CoH at the end of Oct.

Even though Weirauch lost, Dems crow that they forced the NRCC to spend nearly 18% of their total CoH in a CD that Pres. Bush took 61% in ’04. GOPers answer that the close special election in MA-05, along with tonight’s surprisingly easy victory for Latta, mean Dems won’t have two ’06-wave type elections in a row.

It’s impossible to read too much into these results, but the GOP dodged a bullet here. They invested heavily in keeping the strong GOP seat, and in the end, the seat performed as it should have. But GOPers will take this result, considering they were deeply concerned about their survival here just a week ago .